Explore pureMix Assignment
From MusicTechWiki
Overview
pureMix Pro offers a wide variety of incredible resources for learning about all things audio. With courses and tutorials taught by some of the industry's leading songwriters, producers, and engineers, your subscription provides you the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look into the process, tools, and techniques, utilized by some of the best in the field.
For this assignment we would like you to explore and become familiar with all that pureMix Pro has to offer.
Instructions
- Go to pureMix.net and login to your pureMix Pro account
- Click around and explore everything pureMix has to offer
- This can be any video tutorials, upcoming contests, plugins and apps included FREE with the subscription, etc.
- In the discussion, provide a description of the content you found with a summary of your thoughts
- Are you participating in a contest?
- Have you downloaded, installed, and tested out one of the plugins?
- Did a specific video tutorial help you understand a particular concept?
- The Minimum word count for this discussion is 100 words
- Paste a link to the content you discussed
50A Intro Music Tech
Daniel
Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos
I found this video fascinating. He gives a brief introduction to traditional surround sound as a reference point, (most commonly 5.1, which consists of left and right speakers in front and back, a center speaker, and a subwoofer for sound 150hz and below), and then goes into Atmos. In short, Atmos expands on surround sound—a two-dimensional technology—by adding the third dimension of height, and allowing for standardized playback on systems with various numbers and placements of speakers (for instance, a 7.1.4 setup denotes three left speakers, three right speakers, a subwoofer, and four overhead speakers).
It was interesting to hear him to go into some of the capabilities and logistical challenges of Atmos. For instance, the concept of object-based panning, in which the intended placement of a given sound (and specifically, how much of the audio signal should come out of each speaker) in a room is encoded as metadata and then rendered in real time upon playback depending on a given room's configuration using a renderer plugin. Practically speaking, an Atmos mix recorded in a 7.1.4 room and played back in a 5.1.2 room would have the objects heard from the same points in the room despite fewer speakers, based on the encoded metadata.
A more physical challenge is the sound from each speaker reaching the listener at the same time and avoiding phase cancellation, which is mitigated by adding delays to individual speakers in milliseconds in the Atmos mastering suite. He also gives a demonstration of how this can be done manually by using a microphone and a click track to determine delay.
There's more, but it's a worthwhile watch!
Anna
I watched the first episode in the How to Listen series by Fab Dupont. This video was full of enlightening lessons and useful advice. In it, Fab shows how easy it is for your ears to get fooled while mixing. For example, looking at your DAW or plugin UI while playing back a track can trick your brain into "hearing" a sound quality that's not actually present. It's also easy to get fooled by relative sounds. For example, listening to a brightened version of your mix can make the normal version sound dull and muddy by comparison.
Throughout the video, Fab presents examples and listening exercises that demonstrate how difficult it can be to hear and assess a mix accurately. He also emphasizes the importance of active listening and constant practice to develop your short-term and long-term aural memory. Some of the tips he mentions include closing your eyes while listening to a track and also resisting the temptation to crank up your levels to make a mix deceptively seem as if it sounds better. I have a long way to go in developing my listening skills to a competent level for mixing, but Fab's lessons and advice will be invaluable in helping me get there.
Kevin
I viewed Andrew Scheps's "Compression Technology" video. This video was probably the best I've seen explanation of the technology behind compression, the types of compressors by circuitry design (VCA, optical, FET, tube) and signal flow, the major compressors out there (via plugins), what the controls on each compressor does, and different audio examples with each of the compressors.
I enjoyed the audio examples of using the different compressors across a drum, vocal, and piano tracks, as well as the mix bus. It was interesting to hear what each particular compressor did, and the numerous combinations given to achieve a particular soundscape. A person can weeks on figuring out all of the combinations.
In summary, these are my takeaways:
You must know what you want to achieve sound wise before deciding which compressor to use, and what the compressor settings should be. This comes with trying out and experimenting a compressor with a particular instrument or song (i.e. EDM, small acoustic trio), and noting the results. The controls on each compressor are somewhat operationally unique. This brings out the first point that it's best to experiment with each compressor to get a feel of what the control combinations are to achieve a certain sonic goal. His video, as well as Fab's video provide a good start for hearing what compression does; but IMHO, you need to try it live with a good monitor since the changes are somewhat subtle and a matter of taste. For me, I'm thinking about making a Google reference sheet notating for a particular sound or soundscape, each compressor and its settings, notes about the control usage, and an .wav recording for a given scenario. The goal for the sheet is to provide me a quick crib sheet for mixing. I think I'll try that in one of the studio session times using both the outboard compressors and plugins.
Phoebe
Fab Dupont's "Recording Vocals with 1 Microphone"
When I was searching pureMix Pro, I wanted to find a tutorial on recording vocals, specifically with microphone techniques. Finding the best mics and acoustics for recording vocals has been confusing to me for a while, so I was really glad to find this video. Fab had four different mic setups that he described and tested during the video:
The first setup only included the microphone. Fab's goal was to have an intimate/proximity effect with these vocals, so he had the vocalist stand close to the mic. Singing too close into the mic caused static and dynamic peaks in the recording.
In his second setup, Fab had the vocalist move a few inches away from the microphone to prevent static sound. Moving away did fix that problem, but caused the recording to lose a bit of the proximity effect that Fab wanted. He then attached a pop filter to the mic stand, which helps get rid of the static/pops.
In Fab's opinion, setup #3 was the ideal setup for recording vocals. He adjusted the microphone slightly to the side of the singer's face, while still facing it toward him. The vocals should go next to the capsule instead of straight into it. The high end of the vocals was maintained while still having the proximity effects that Fab wanted.
James
Song Structure Explained With Fab Dupont
I found this video super helpful in fully understanding how song structure works. I had known that AABA and other such things existed, but I never really learned how to identify them in music. It's always cool to me to see how you can find structure, categories, and complexity in things that grow organically, like music or simple systems. As a bonus, the examples he gave had me listening to a wide variety of music that I would never have thought to listen to, from Schubert to Drake and everything in between. I think the tutorial will help me write my own songs, because I tend to ramble them on for a long time without any structure.
Maribelle
While exploring puremix, I found that the platform offers a combination of tutorials as well as interviews and documentaries. The tutorials in particular cover a wide range of topics, covering everything you would need to know to create a song from start to finish. There was even a cooking video section which surprised me because it seems so unrelated to the majority of the videos they offer, but perhaps parallels can be drawn between cooking in the kitchen and cooking up a beat in the studio.
One of the videos I watched was “How to Listen” by Fab Dupont. In the video he discusses oral memory, long-term and short-term. Long-term oral memory is heavily dependent on environment–we remember things differently depending on the environment and mood we were in when we heard them. To combat our eyes fooling our ears, Fab recommends looking away from the screen when listening for something important. Looking away or closing your eyes also allows you to create a mental map of the different levels of the instruments. He also advices to leave the volume button alone when listening, because changing the volume will alter your perception of the sound.
David
In all honesty, I found PureMix a bit disorganized and hard to navigate, but despite this I was able to explore what it had to offer.
To start, I checked the contests page and at the moment no contests are open. After some more exploring, I found the page with the plugins you could download free with the pro subscription. Only Melodyne seemed to be worthwhile to download but the code provided on Puremix to get it for free wasn't working on Melodyne's website, which was quite frustrating.
However, I did find some useful videos. I was still a little confused about the topic of compression, so I watched Fab Dupont's video "Compression Overview". This explained the topic bit better and the helped train my ear to hear subtle differences between compressed and non-compressed audio files.
Furthermore, I watched Duponts "How to EQ Vocals Links to an external site.", which, similarly to "Compression Overview" was helpful in training my ear to listen to subtle differences. I also gained insights into how to properly edit a track's EQ to elevate the song overall, such as how to lower specific sounds' frequencies and why it can be a good idea to do high passes to give other lower instruments room to breathe.
Nathaniel
Start to Finish: Jimmy Douglass - Episode 13 - Mixing Part 3
For this assignment, I did download all plugins I could get my hands on. As a bedroom producer, new plugins and toys always improve my production. I also checked out Start to Finish by Jimmy Douglass. This course focuses on mixing and it follows Jimmy in his process. He starts by organizing all the tracks sent to him and setting up the reference track. I found this video extremely insightful and has changed the way I think about the mixing process. I've always looked at the mixing process as changing the levels and adding effects to create a more dynamic mix but after watching this I think I've been missing some essential ideas. The thing he did that stood out to me most was a simple change he made to a tom fill. All he did was raise the DB of the tom by three, this created a bigger moment when the tom fill came in and made the transition more interesting. It showed me that mixing isn't just about making sure you can hear everything but it's also about highlighting those moments that make the track stand out.
Matthew
I watched Ben Lindell's video on how to produce a simple beat in pro-tools. It was interesting to see it come together from a simple piano concept, to a full on R&B/hiphop beat. I liked his method of finding the ideal tempo, he turned off the conductor track and tapped his tempo in by clicking T on the keyboard. He also showed some cool shortcuts, like how to quickly quantize (by selecting the region and press option 0) his original piano recording. Then he trimmed his regions by using "A" and "S" and adjusted the velocity on his mini grand. His patience was refreshing and something I need to work on, when he didn't get the drums right the first time around, he calmly made some adjustments and carried on. Watching this reminds me that I need to invest in a proper midi keyboard! I also need to get better acclimated with pads to add more texture to my beats. I also learned what plate reverb is and its purpose.
Ryan
I visited Start to Finish: The Arrows and discovered how Fab Dupont makes this band sound professional. I can see how bands can evolve their song from a scratch track of vocals, drums, bass, and simple guitars and keyboards to a more professional mix with better sounds. I can see how Dupont restructures the song from what the band pre-recorded in the scratch track and places markers on the song project in Pro Tools, which is almost similar to what I have been doing when I make songs. Dupont has also overdubbed drums and bass and added in additional guitars and keyboards to the mix to make the song sound more like a techno-rock song than the scratch track. I don't know what plugins Dupont is using for the synths, but for me, I have been using Xpand2 for a while (or Alchemy when I'm on Logic).
Link to content: Start to Finish series with Fab Dupont and The Arrows
Partap
I am not participating in the contest and have not downloaded any plugins from Pure Mix Pro. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about Pure Mix Pro, I think it's a bit unorganized and kind of all over the place. I personally learn best when with trial and error and experimenting. There are a lot of helpful videos on Pure Mix Pro, but I think you can find a-lot of that stuff like that on YouTube for free. I personally want to just learn pro tools and get better at using pro tools, I don't care about songwriting and stuff like that I think it's a waste of time for me. other than that, I explored Pure Mix Pro and came across this interview that I enjoyed.
Andrew Scheps and Fab Dupont Mixing With Headphones
Justin
Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos
So I thought I was going to find something related to recording vocals or guitar, because that's essentially all I really want to be able to do well, at this early point of learning this stuff. But I saw on the first page, an introductory video to Dolby Atmos by Andrew Scheps. Last week, there was a remastered release of the album Revolver, by The Beatles, which has been praised enough over the last fifty plus years, that I won't add to that here. But in the new release, there is a Dolby Atmos mix, which I was super excited to hear. So I bought a simple sound system that could playback in Atmos. But the whole process was a little bit of a headache with getting the right kind of media player to play on the right kind of equipment, and so on. So, I thought it was interesting to learn about how Atmos actually works. Scheps does a good job doing just that. And I supposed it seemed kind of fitting, being that he's explaining how it all works, from inside a Dolby Atmos rendering room at Abbey Road, which is where the original album was recorded and recently remastered.
I was most interested in how an Atmos mix works in headphones, since that is effectively only two channels, as opposed to a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setup. And he explains that very concept, called binaural, rather thoroughly in the second video.
Scarlett
I clicked around the pureMix website and saw a couple features I hadn't noticed before. One of these features was the ear training test, that tests you on recognizing certain frequencies after playing a reference white noise. I thought this was pretty interesting because I have always wanted to get a better musical ear, and have previously used websites to try and get better at recognizing musical intervals, so this was similar. I like how the ear training is unique for mixers for recognizing various frequency bands and pitches, to get faster at EQing frequencies you hear in a mix. I wasn't very good at distinguishing between the different frequencies, but hope I will get better after this practice. Ear Training
Joong
I just found something interesting about, a concept that I recently get to know of. it's a dolby Atmos.
Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos
the video tutorial was very helpful to understand first of monitoring format we were using for a long time. Atmos tech came recently and now adopted by a lot of theatre and sound systems. Long time ago(maybe 30 years back) I heard of similar concept which was about sending some kind of high frequency sound that human cannot hear, they are sent from some sort of surround speakers in the room, and they meet at the designated point in the space and start interfere and generated listenable sound from there. Thus, human feels like the sound is coming right from nowhere in the middle of the room. I was expecting similar concept from Atmos. However, this was quite different concept and maybe simply an expanded version of surround sound tech. It is definitely a next level of technology by removing the limit of speaker configuration and jump in to the ultimate resolution on the real world dimension. The video was demonstrating all the Pro Tools configuration for the Atmos, object and panning how to, dual workstation setup, distance measuring from speakers, and theory behind speaker crash down.
52A Mixing and Mastering 1
Devin
3: Yes I signed up for the giveaway and did all of the steps to get 5 entries, and I haven't downloaded the plugins because I'm not a huge fan of something that if I cancel the subscription they stop working.
One app I did try was the frequency response test which I did pretty okay at, the first lower octave test I got a 7/10, the midrange I got a 10/10, and the highs I got an 8/10, though some were a but hard to distinguish. I remember that "ooeeaa" thing when listening to white noise and boosting a certain range so that helped a lot too.
Here is the test: Ear Training: Frequency Quiz
Diego
The section I was mainly looking through was just the tutorial section, there's a large variety of different content that I found very interesting, and honestly it wasn't all necessarily tutorials, for example, I watched a tour of the blackbird studio which was super cool, and a very interstingly/intricately designed studio. (Link for the Blackbird studio tour Links to an external site.) But I did also see some actual tutorials/guides, for example, Start to Finish with Snark Puppy and Nic Hard was one that I watched for a little bit, it was only a 30 minute video but it had a lot of insight into stereo mixing and I guess just different peoples styles.
Start to Finish: Snarky Puppy & Nic Hard - Stereo Mixing w/ Michael League
Christopher
After browsing through the menus and categories of the Puremix site, I am glad that I was able to discover content beyond the video tutorials, plug-in perks, and other services (Mixup) that initially came with my subscription.
Probably my most interesting find so far was the Mix Analysis section found under the Features menu. As the name implies, this section includes links to various hit recordings, each giving an in-depth analysis of the mixing and other details leading to the creation of the hit songs. I was drawn and found myself spending some time reading a few of the somewhat long articles about the recording backgrounds behind such hits, like Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature,” Earth Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove” and Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” Links to an external site.. Reading some exclusive behind-the-scenes analysis of the creation of these hit songs was a real treat and really broadened my mixing & production horizons even further. Eventually I’ll read the analysis of all 25 tracks and hope that more new insight stories on other songs will appear in the future.
Puremix: Mix Check - Mix Analysis
Shreya
I mostly looked through the video tutorial section and watched the tutorial Links to an external site.about EQing vocals as this is something I struggle with a lot. My main takeaway was that small changes can make a big difference to how the vocals blend in with the other tracks. There was also a super helpful vocal frequency chart, which detailed which frequencies to focus on for which problems. For example, if the vocals sound too muffled, notching out the 180 – 240 Hz frequencies for male, and around 300 frequencies for female can help.
Another really interesting feature I found was the mix tank Links to an external site., where you can upload mixes and get feedback from other pureMix Pro members. I thought this was useful because getting an outside ear can be extremely useful, especially when you’ve been working on mix for hours on end, or if you’re a beginner.
Scarlett
After clicking around the pureMix website, one video series of interest to me was ill Factor's Start to Finish playlist. It was useful to see a producer and engineer using the same DAW as me, Ableton Live, who also shared his creative process behind producing a new song from scratch. His tips for starting a new track in this video were very useful to me, such as how to build momentum for creating new ideas by either getting inspired by existing songs or playing around with patches. One tip specifically he mentions is setting aside one day a week to look for inspiring samples and bookmarking them for later to minimize time needed to browse later. Also, I like seeing how someone starts off with a basic idea and melody and begins to build it into a full track.
Links to an external site. Jumpstarting The Creative Process
Jason
Found this free giveaway here! Here's the link if any of you guys want to enter: Snarky Puppy Links to an external site.
I also discovered that puremix offers a free to an external site. LUFS analyzer
In addition, I had no idea but puremix has community submissions and feedback of mixes. It appears you can both comment on other people's mixes as well as submit your own. I found this particular mix and correlating community feedback particularly nice: Links to an external site This one is really cool as well: Alexandre va sweat Links to an external site They discuss effects as well as frequency range.
Finally, I played around with some ear training which helps tune your ear to specific frequency ranges: Ear Training: Frequency Quiz
Gavin
After searching through Pure Mix, I found many helpful tutorial videos and free plugins. I mostly searched through the tutorial videos and I'm glad I stumbled upon a video made by Andrew Scheps about Dolby Atmos. I have always been curious about how it worked and this video was very informational. He covered many topics including, the kind of speaker configurations available in Dolby Atmos, how the room calibration of the speaker system is done, and even broke down the Dolby Renderer. My favorite part of the video had to be the portion where he explains how mixing and mastering is done. I'll leave a link to the tutorial video down below.
Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos
Miles
pureMix Pro has all sorts of cool stuff from access to tools like decibel and other plugins to including mixup.com. The tutorials seem endless and they do a pretty good job at giving you the option to navigate the topics you want to go over (protools, mastering, recording, etc.). I actually found some great downloadable master tracks which I was able to use as mix practice on my own. It's cool that you have the option to watch a pro mix the tracks and then try to do it yourself. Unfortunately, I learned the limits of my computer this way. Time for an upgrade!
I am not participating in any contests. I reckon I'd be pretty lousy at first but I think I have some tools in my belt to start trying just for practice until I am better! I have downloaded Decibel but have had some problems I don't want to get too deep into here. Mostly my computer woes and weird signal paths. I'd love to download them all though but have been holding out until I allow myself to splurge on a new computer due to limited space on mine.
I think all the videos have good takeaways. I like watching each producer's process and how they think about things. I guess the one I've watched the closest is F Reid Shippen mixing Dierks Bentley.
F. Reid Shippen Mixing Dierks Bentley
Bryant
I watched a mix analysis video on the song Angela by The Lumineers and it was great. I think it was super useful to hear the breakdown of a song that I really like because I've heard it so many times that it was easier to digest how the sound was achieved. I was unable to find where to get free plug ins but I would love to try some out. I was able to find an ear training quiz but it was pretty difficult for me. I may try one of the contests but I am pretty unconfident about my mixing skills at the moment so I don't know if I will do that quite yet.
Inside The Mix: The Lumineers with Ryan Hewitt
James
Discoveries on pureMix I found most interesting were:
Andrew Scheps talking about mixing Green Day Links to an external site.. Included is a description of the technique to do the intro with a very narrowband EQ or at very low volume or very down the middle (or all three!); then when the full wide mix comes in the listener gets this blossoming effect. While I know this could easily be overused I really love that experience. Also interesting that he mentions being terrified to work on the mix given a few challenging situations (e.g. an a capella section, a drum solo). Always good to hear the professionals can be intimidated.
In the "Mentors" section, Mick Guzauski describes Links to an external site., and provides a link to, his template. (Actually templates plural, one for each of several DAWs.) I opened the template in Logic... don't get it yet... look forward to spending some time learning and understanding the concept. I'm not participating in any contest and my only download was of the aforementioned plug-in.
William
While I was exploring the site, I found this really good article that dives deep in to David Bowie's discography & David Bowie retrospective. I personally Have listened to a majority of Bowie's discography and this article was a quite nice retrospective. I am having a lot of fun with these articles. This one I found about the mix on Dark Side of The Moon was also quite interesting It was fun to listen to the record after reading what Fab Dupont was saying about it. I also was going through Mix Tank looking through some of the mixes. It's interesting to have such a large data base of amateur and professional mixes.
Filiberto
I haven't gotten to checking out or downloading the plugins included in Puremix Pro but will definitely check them out will I have a subscription.
I watched Start to Finish: Vance Powell - Episode 8 in which he talks about his process for recording vocals and the video actually shows the conversations between him and the artist in order to best accommodate the artist to get the best performance possible. Its very useful to see how communication and experimenting does wonders during the production and the tracking stage. One part in the video the singer wanted a certain effect on his vocals to get him in the zone and Vance was quick to get that setup to start recording again
Start to Finish: Vance Powell - Episode 8 - Recording Vocals